Well, it took me the better part of three weeks to get through my photos from my recent trip, the last week of September, to the Badlands, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks. This is the fourth trip in the last several years. Twice with my wonderful wife and the last two times with my good friend and incredible photographer, Harsha.

Leaving on a Friday we drove through the night to the Badlands National Park, arriving in time to get a few star photos and the sunrise. We camped a couple of days in the Badlands taking photos of Prairie Dogs, Mountain Bluebirds, Meadowlarks, and Bighorn sheep. We took sunrise and sunset photos each day and Milky Way stars photos at night. I found that the lighting that I preferred on the rocks of the Badlands was about 45 to 30 minutes before sunrise and about the same after sunset. The sunlight on a clear day was too contrasty and on a cloudy day too flat. Most were 10 to 30 second exposures at f/16 and ISO 100 (camera on a sturdy tripod of course). Night-time stars photos were mostly 30 second exposures at f/2.8 and a 17mm wide angle lens and ISO 2000-3200. We also saw a porcupine at night crossing the road, but didn't get photos. Leaving late in the day we were hoping to get to Devil's Tower, WY to take some Milky Way photos with the tower in the foreground. Unfortunately we were racing a cloud front that got there ahead of us, so we continued on toward Jackson, WY.

Our next destination was the Grand Tetons National Park, WY and three short nights in an over-priced motel. We took sunrise and sunset photos of the famed Mormon barns at Antelope Flats, sunrise photos of the mountains at Oxbow Bend, and Schwabacher's Landing, and daytime photos of the mountains with the Snake River. and colorful leaves. The trees in the Grand Tetons were ablaze in yellow and spectacular. We also took Milky Way photos at night with one of the Morman barns. We got photos of Bison, a cow and calf Moose, Mule Deer, but after waiting for 1 1/2 hours for a bull Moose to get up out of the grass, he rose and turned in to the shrubs and we never did get a decent shot of the bull. We saw two Black Bear in the trees eating berries but I didn't get a good shot. Unfortunately one of the best places for Moose photos along the Moose-Wilson Road was closed due to a Grizzly Bear and cubs frequenting the area. So we didn't get the Moose photos we were hoping for. Lots of great landscapes though.

On to Yellowstone National Park with two nights of camping at the Madison campground and the last night in a motel in Gardiner, MT. In Yellowstone we took photos of Elk, Bighorn Sheep, Bison, an entertaining Cormorant, and Trumpeter Swans. We took photos of geysers day and night with some interesting Milky way shots. We were somewhat disappointed at the lack of wildlife opportunities. No Grizzlies, Moose, Black Bear nor Wolves. There were very few bull Elk, and not in the best of locations. It seems that we missed it by a couple of weeks, because since we returned there have been numerous sightings of Grizzlies, Elk and Moose. The Wolves are usually quite far from the roads and difficult to photograph. (Hmmm... maybe an excuse to go back again?). The last day we did get some Elk photos in the pouring rain, but decided to not pursue other photo opps in the rain and headed back east.

One footnote: We saw lots of people approaching wildlife, way too close, with their cell phones and small cameras to try to get closeup pictures. This is very dangerous and harassing the animals. We also saw people crowding around animals from both sides to take photos giving the animal no place to escape. Every year there are many people who are injured, gored or killed by wild animals in National Parks because they got too close. All of our wildlife photos were taken with long telephoto lenses from a safe distance or from the car.